Four Mutants and a Baby
by deichtine
Summary: NB:121804 This story is being extensively rewritten see author profile for details. Ch. 1 to 5 rewrite complete. The members of Mutant X have their hands full when a baby is thrust into their care. NB: INCOMPLETE and likely to stay that way.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: Mutant X and its associated characters, locales, etc. are the property of Tribune Entertainment et al; my thanks to them. No copyright infringement is intended. Non-canon characters are my own, but feel free to use them. :)

Rating: PG

Summary: The title says it all

Spoilers/Timeline: Takes place in late season two, post-"The Grift", pre-"Lest He Become"

Relationships: Not a big part of the story, but there are J/E and B/S vibes going on. I'm normally a B/E fan but for this story, I'm making an exception. It just flows better this way. And as ever, poor Adam lives a life of solitude. :)

Author's note: I'm having a bout of writer's malaise with respect to _Research Subject_ (man, I really need to rename that one). So I decided to write this one instead. It's not going to be a long one, but I'll try to stretch it over a few chapters.

July 12, 2005: I had given up on finishing this story, but today I thought I'd give it a go, especially I'm writer's-blocking on _Pitch Perfect_. I didn't think I'd come back to MX fic but hey, everyone needs some brain candy now and again.

* * *

**Four Mutants and a Baby - Chapter 1**

by Deichtine

"Is this MutantX?"

"Who is this? How did you get this number?"

"Please, you have to help me. I'm desperate. I have no one else to turn to."

The young woman on the screen looked to be telling the truth. Her hair was disheveled, her clothes were rumpled, and she looked like she hadn't had a good sleep in weeks. Adam hesitated, thennodded soothingly.

"Of course we'll help you," he said gently. "That's what we do. What's wrong?"

"Is it safe to talk like this?"

"Don't worry, this line is secure."

She took a deep breath. "I'm a...a mutant," she said. It was obvious this wasn't something she admitted often, perhaps even to herself. "These people are following me, chasing me, and I don't know why. I can't run any more, not on my own!" She was crying now, the exhaustion evident in every line of her body.

"I'm going to send my team to bring you in. We can talk when you get here. Just tell me where you are."

The woman bit her lip, and her eyes darted around as though she might see potential listeners. "Are you sure no one else can hear this?"

"Yes, positive," Adam soothed gently. "This is the most secure system in the country, if not the world."

"Okay. I'm at the Traveler's Inn, on Pells Street. Room 125. Please, come soon."

Looking somewhat relieved, but still on the verge of tears, she broke the connection. Turning away from the communications console, Adam raised his ring hand to his lips.

"Brennan, Jesse, Shalimar, Emma. I need you guys to head to the Helix."

* * *

"So, what kind of mutant are we looking for?" Shalimar asked as the team approached room 125. 

Brennan shrugged. "Adam didn't know. Just that she's young, mutant, and terrified of something. She wouldn't even give him her name. She was afraid of someone hearing."

Jesse opened his mouth, then closed it again, and Emma looked over at him.

"What, Jesse?"

He smiled ruefully. "Well, I was going to make a crack about her being paranoid, but considering what we've been through the last few years, she probably has every right to be."

"True enough," Brennan said, and knocked on the door. "Hello?" There was no response. "We're friends of Adam," he called. "Can we come in?" Still nothing.

The four mutants exchanged glances. Silent agreement. Brennan stepped back, pivoted, and with a smooth, quick movement kicked the door in, landing ready for action.

The young woman who had called Adam was nowhere in sight. The window was open, the bedclothes rumpled; the remains of a cheap take-out dinner littered the small bedside table. And sitting atop the unmade bed was a baby carrier in which an infant, maybe six months old, cooed happily.

"What the hell?" Shalimar said, springing in behind Brennan.

"Took the words right out of my mouth," Jesse said dryly, peeking over Emma's shoulder where she had stopped still in the doorway.

"Where's our mutant?" Emma asked.

"Split, obviously," Brennan said, and from his voice it was clear that he was pretty pissed off.

"Adam said she was young, but somehow I don't think this is what he meant," Jesse observed, joining Shalimar at the bedside to look at the baby.

The feral looked down at the infant, her eyes soft. "And who are you then, little one?" she asked. The baby smiled up at her withcurious green eyes. "There's a note here." She picked it up, scanned it, then read it aloud.

"I'm sorry I deceived you, but I couldn't think of any other way. No adoption agency would know how to deal with her special abilities, but Mutant X will know what to do. She isn't safe with me. Her name is Siobhan. God forgive me." Shalimar lowered the note, looked up at her teammates. "It's unsigned."

Brennan frowned. "So what do we do now? We can't take it back with us."

Emma gave him the universal look of a female unimpressed with a male's boorish ways. "Of course we can take _her_ back," she said. "Not permanently, of course. But what else can we do? We can't just leave her here alone.Besides," she added, her face growing soft as she looked down again at Siobhan, "she's beautiful."

Brennan shook his head. "Are you nuts? We're not prepared to take care of a baby."

The flat stare returned. "No one ever is. We'll make do. When we get back Jesse and I'll take the car, go to the store, get what we need. Meanwhile, if that girl really was being watched, we'd better get Siobhan out of here and back to Sanctuary."

Brennan looked ready to object again, but one look at Shalimar's and Emma's faces stopped him. He turned to Jesse, who was regarding the baby with bemusement. "What do you have to say about this, Jesse?"

His young friend grinned. "Well, I have to admit, she is pretty cute."

Brennan let out a frustrated breath, then turned around and stalked out of the room, speaking into his comlink. "Adam, we have a problem. You're not going to believe this."

End chapter one.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: Mutant X and its associated characters, locales, etc. are the property of Tribune Entertainment et al; my thanks to them. No copyright infringement is intended. Non-canon characters are my own, but feel free to use them. :)

**Four Mutants and a Baby**

by Deichtine

Brennan watched with growing unease as Adam reached down into the baby carrier, scooped up the little girl, and swept her high into the air, wide grins on both their faces. Adam gave the baby a little toss, and almost gave Brennan a heart attack.

"Hey, be careful, Adam," he said, forcing himself not to take a step forward.

Adam cocked an eyebrow at him with a knowing, amused expression. "I know what I'm doing, Brennan."

"That's not a toy, you know." Brennan refused to show the others how irritating their carefully suppressed smiles were becoming.

"Babies really aren't that fragile," Adam said, as Siobhan squealed in delight, the red fuzz on her head lifting gently as the air rushed through it. "Here." He held the baby out to Brennan, who backed away immediately.

"No way. I'm _not_ holding that thing. How long since she's been changed, anyway?"

Shalimar easily took the baby from Adam, hoisted her on her hip. "She doesn't need to be changed. Do you, Siobhan?" Unlike Emma, Shalimar had not yet begun to speak to the baby in that annoyingly high-pitched motherly voice, for which Brennan was thankful, but she did insist on talking to the baby when it obviously couldn't respond beyond drooling. She held out a finger for the baby to grasp, and smiled softly when the little hand gripped tight.

"Maybe not," Adam said, "but she will eventually. So Emma, Jesse, I want you to head out, pick up basic supplies. Diapers, clothes, formula, some toys, that sort of thing. Shalimar, I need you to help me in the lab. Let's get a run on little 'Bhan's DNA started, see what we're dealing with here. Maybe we can get a match on her mother or father in the database."

Jesse looked down at the baby in Shalimar's arms, reached out to tickle her chin. "Name like Siobhan, red hair, green eyes. Irish?"

Brennan gave him a disgusted look. "You think?" he said sarcastically. "So what do I get to do, oh paragon of child-rearing?" he asked Adam.

"Well, since I can't see you being much help in the lab, why don't you search hospital records for baby girls with the first name Siobhan born four to six months ago and cross-reference parents with the New Mutant Database?"

"Here in the city?"

"In the country."

"That'll take hours."

"Better get started, then." Emma and Jesse headed off towards the Helix's hangar, and the group began to disperse. Just before he turned towards the computer station, he looked down one last time at the source of his irritation, and found that those quiet, annoying green eyes were staring back up at him. Somehow they seemed to be laughing at something only she knew about. Siobhan smiled at him, then reached up and grabbed a lock of Shalimar's hair.

Grumbling, Brennan jerked away. Why did life have to be so complicated?

-----

Emma and Jesse entered the baby area in Wal-mart, Emma with excitement, Jesse with amusement at Emma's excitement. She was beautiful to watch when she was like this, he thought: so naturally feminine. She flitted through the aisles, stopping every few steps to give a high-pitched squeal at a particularly cute item. Jesse followed, resolutely pushing the cart with its one jammed wheel, shaking his head at the sheer profusion of things people in Emma's state of mind would put down money for.

And Emma was no exception. The cart filled, slowly but steadily, as they wound their way through the aisles.

"We're never going to need all this," Jesse said doubtfully as he reached into the cart to haul out something pink and soft with a label marking it a "Snugglie". "She won't be with us that long."

"How do you know?" Emma asked, going up on tiptoe to reach for an overstuffed, floppy-eared rabbit that, when you pressed its tummy, played lullabies in electronic tones. "It could be weeks, or months, and babies grow fast. Plus, it's good to have. What if Shalimar or I had a baby?"

The question was so off-hand, so utterly unexpected that Jesse choked on the sip of Coke he'd just taken. "What?"

Emma faced him, one eyebrow raised in that challenging way he knew so well. He'd never have told her out loud, but the way she stood, weight on one foot, hand on hip, chin high, was incredibly sexy. "Shalimar and I _are_ women you know. Or hadn't you noticed?"

He most certainly had, but Jesse thought it safest not to answer that one.

"We're not going to be young forever. Sooner or later, we might start thinking about families. You and Brennan too. Haven't you ever wanted to be a father?"

Jesse could feel his face turning red. Here, in the baby product aisle, seemed entirely the wrong place to discuss the subject. "Uh, of course. Someday. Maybe. But being a member of -" he eyed another woman turning into the aisle - "...the team, sort of precludes that for now, don't you think? For all of us."

Emma sniffed and turned to cast a critical eye on the large selection of baby formula. "I don't know about you," she said, "but I for one don't intend to let the evildoers of the world interfere with my life and my happiness any more than I have to. When the time comes, I'll take maternity leave, just like any other job."

Jesse searched for a way to change the subject. Thinking about Emma having babies - whose babies he didn't let himself even consider - was just too much for him. "Ah, do you think we should get the pre-mixed kind?" he said weakly.

Emma smiled, enjoying his embarrassment, and hefted a case from the bottom shelf, knowing full well that she was giving him a fine view of her figure as she did so. "Definitely. Iron fortified."

-----

When Brennan entered the lab, it was eerily quiet. Adam was working at a display panel, and Shalimar was standing by an exam bed, blocking his view.

"I've finished searching the-," he began, only to have two furious faces round on him immediately.

"SHHHH!" Adam and Shalimar said together.

"She's sleeping," Shalimar whispered, jerking her chin down at the exam bed, where, Brennan could now see, the baby had fallen asleep, one hand closed gently around the leg of a small teddybear. They had stripped her down to her diaper and Brennan found himself staring at the impossibly tiny, impossibly perfect toenails. Adam pressed a button and a scanning beam flickered down from the ceiling to wash gently over the tiny form.

"Where'd you get the teddybear?" Brennan asked, more quietly. The last thing he wanted was for the baby to start crying.

"One of mine," Shalimar said absently.

"Really?" He forgot to hide his surprise, then shifted uneasily as she narrowed her eyes at him. "I, ah, never would have pegged you for the teddybear type."

"What did you find?" Adam said, quietly breaking up what looked to be a potentially awkward conversation. He draped a thin blanket over the sleeping child and her mouth began to make sucking motions in her sleep.

Brennan realized he was staring, and stopped himself. "Not very much. Three baby girls named Siobhan were born in the time range in three different hospitals with one or both parents in the database. Of these, two are accounted for - I phoned the parents. The third couple, Frances and Robert O'Riley, seem unlikely, but possible. I got the answering machine."

"Doesn't sound promising," Adam murmured.

"No, but it rules out the obvious, anyway. I also took the liberty of checking to see what name that motel room was booked under. The woman paid in cash, in advance, and signed in as Mary Black. There's no one under that name in the database."

"I think it's safe to assume she'd be using an alias," Adam said. "She thought she was being followed, watched. She'll have covered her tracks. Keep digging."

"What about you guys? What have you learned?"

Adam turned back to the display, studied the results scrolling there for a moment. "Not much. Dental and bone development make her approximately seven months old. From the present she left us in her diaper, she seems to have been primarily formula-fed, which is nice - it won't be a big change for her system. She's well-nourished and big for her age. That plus the fact that she's so comfortable with strangers leads me to believe she's been well-loved and looked after. We've got a DNA pattern, and I'm currently running it against the database for a parental match. Oh, and, as we suspected, she is a New Mutant. It looks like she's an elemental -- Electrical," he said, cocking an eye at Brennan with a smile. "Though it's unlikely she'll show any outward manifestations for a couple of years yet."

"Little spark-shooter, eh?" Brennan said, looking down at the baby again. She seemed so small, so helpless. He felt acutely uncomfortable. "Well, best of luck with that, kid. I'm going back to the motel room, see if there's anything we missed."

"I'll go with you," Shalimar said. "You gonna be okay here, Adam?"

He waved them away, not taking his eyes from Siobhan. "Sure. I'll be fine. Go on. And watch your backs. If this Mary Black was being followed, that motel room might be watched."

Brennan watched as Adam gently scooped the baby up from the exam bed and replaced her in the carrier, tucking blankets close around her, with an ease that Brennan envied.

"You coming, Brennan?" Shalimar asked from the doorway, and he turned to follow her, studiously ignoring her bemused expression.

End chapter 2.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: MutantX and its associated characters, locales, etc., is the property of Tribune Entertainment et al; my thanks to them. No infringement of any kind is intended. Other characters, such as Siobhan, are my own, but feel free to use them if you wish.

**Four Mutants and a Baby**

by Deichtine

Jesse and Emma returned from their shopping trip just as Shalimar and Brennan were preparing to leave, and the outgoing team members found their exit delayed, as they were commandeered to help carry packages from the garage to the impromptu nursery they'd set up in the living quarters.

"How much did you buy?" Brennan asked, or rather grunted, as he heaved a large box onto his back. On it was a large, glossy picture of an impossibly happy baby in a wind-up swing.

"Only about half the baby department," Jesse said dryly as he hung shopping bags from his fingers.

"Yeah, I can tell," Shalimar said. She reached into a bag and pulled out a stuffed purple elephant. "Oh, now, this is just too cute," she said, sharing a girly look with Emma -- causing the boys to share a "here-we-go-again" boyish look behind the girls' backs.

When Adam saw the rapidly filling nursery, he just raised his eyebrows and said, "I thought I said just some basic supplies."

-----

When Shalimar and Brennan arrived at the motel room for the second time that day, they found that someone had been and gone in their absence, and it wasn't housekeeping. Where the room had been a little messy before, it was in a shambles now. The bedclothes had been torn from the bed; the drawers had been pulled from the dilapidated old nightstands, the garbage cans had been dumped out, and the mattress overturned.

"Looks like we got here just in time before," Shalimar said, surveying the damage with wide eyes.

Brennan swore, then activated his comlink. "Adam, looks like this Mary Black, or whoever she is, was for real when she said she was being followed. The room's been tossed. It's a mess. I don't know if we're going to be able to find anything."

Adam's voice sounded troubled. "I understand. Well, do a thorough search anyway. There's always the possibility they might have missed something."

"Got it." As one, Brennan and Shalimar gazed around the

The sky outside the grimy window was growing dark when Brennan finally gave up. "Shalimar, we might as well go home," he said. "There's nothing here to go on and I don't have the first idea where else to look." She didn't answer – her attention was focused on the bedspread, which she was staring at with golden-eyed intensity, as though it had some kind of invisible writing only she could see. Finally she gave up and tossed it down in disgust. "There's got to be something here. I just know it," she said, and he shrugged.

He sat down on the corner of the bed as she grabbed the wastebasket and started digging gingerly through the refuse that was still inside it. "So, how come you're so good with kids?" he asked, idly tossing a spark from finger to finger.

She looked up at him. "I don't know. Instinct, I guess. It just feels natural. When I hold that little girl, it's like something wakes up in me, some deep-rooted desire to keep her safe, make sure she's happy, that what happened to –" she stopped, and dropped her eyes.

"That what happened to you doesn't happen to her," Brennan finished for her. He let the spark die and reached out to squeeze her shoulder. "I understand."

"And you," she said, putting the trash can down again, "what's up with you? It's like you hated her on sight."

"I don't hate her," he protested. "I'm just not very good with kids, okay?"

"Why not?"

"I don't know. Maybe it's a guy thing."

"What have we here?" Shalimar said, her golden eyes fastening on the carpet near his foot. She reached down and delicately lifted a long hair from the floor: reddish blonde. "Hello, DNA sample."

"Good work," Brennan approved. Unfortunately, the finding of the hair did not distract Shalimar from the topic at hand.

"Adam and Jesse don't seem to be having too much of a problem," she said, giving him a pointed look.

His eyes took on a sparkle she knew too well. "Well, that's just because _I_ am so much stronger and more masculine," he said jokingly, and leapt away as she tossed a pillow at him. "Come on. Let's get that hair back to Adam and see what he can turn up."

"Masculine my ass," she said. "_Boys._"

-----

After Siobhan had been changed and thoroughly fed and played with by Jesse and the girls, and put to bed for the night, Adam called the team for a meeting in the concourse.

"We have a problem," Adam said, by way of introduction. "Shalimar, that hair you found? It's not a parental match to Siobhan."

"If it's not her mother's, whose is it?" Jesse asked, and Adam raised a finger knowingly.

"Well, that's the problem. I ran the hair's DNA signature through the database, and bingo: Nichole Page, a Sonic Elemental." He brought up a picture on the screen to show them: a young woman, shoulder-length hair pulled back severely into a flowing ponytail. Her expression was focussed, emotionally closed. "Our most recent information about her says she's a GSAgent. None of my contacts could tell me what happened to her after Ashlocke's takeover."

"So she's highly trained and on the loose. I wonder who she's working for?" Emma said.

"No way to know, but what we _do_ know is that Siobhan's mother was right – she was being followed. It's lucky you guys got to that motel room when you did."

"Not soon enough, I'm thinking," Brennan said. "We haven't found a single trace of the mother – I'm guessing that Page – or whoever she's working with – got to her before we could."

"Which raises the question," Adam continued. "Why do they want her? And were they really looking for her – or for Siobhan?"

"My God, Adam, you don't think they're after a little baby, do you?" Shalimar sounded shocked.

"We can't discount it as a possibility. And until we know for sure what's going on, I want at least one of you with her at all times." They all nodded. Somehow, something inside of each of them rebelled at the thought of using a baby for any kind of experimental process.

"So, I'm going to be in the lab, keep looking at Siobhan's DNA, see if I can find anything about why they might want her or her parents. It's also vital that we ascertain who her parents are. So, Jesse, you get on the computer, keep searching for matches, anything at all that might lead us to the parents. Shalimar, you're going to dig up everything you can on Nichole Page, see if you can track her movements after Genomex. Emma, I'll need you to assist me in the lab."

"What's my job?" Brennan asked, jumping up from his chair.

Adam pointed genially at him, a twinkle in his eye. "You get first watch over Siobhan."

End chapter 3.


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: Mutant X and its associated characters, locales, etc. are the property of Tribune Entertainment et al; my thanks to them. No copyright infringement is intended. Non-canon characters are my own, but feel free to use them. :)

Author's Note: Sorry, I forgot to include this with the last part. SparksJSH was right: the name _Siobhan_ is pronounced like shuh-vaahn, rhyming with "the lawn". For any of you who are interested, the _i_ after the s palatalizes it to a /sh/ sound, and the h after the b softens it into a fricative/v/. Ask a linguist a pronunciation question, you get an answer. :D

Due apologies to Queen.

**Four Mutants and a Baby**

by Deichtine

Nestled into her carrier on the floor, Siobhan regarded her tall guardian with wide-eyed trust.

From his spot, crosslegged on the floor several feet away, Brennan stared right back, his eyes not nearly so trusting. They had been sitting like this for almost fifteen minutes, since she woke up from her brief nap.

Brennan shifted in place on the floor. His instinct was to get up and pace around the room, to _move_. He couldn't sit still with those eyes on him. They made him nervous in a way no GSAgent had ever managed. But he didn't want to chance it. What if he freaked her out? What if she started to cry?

_Just sit still_, he told himself, _and maybe she'll go back to sleep. It's just an hour or two, then Emma or Shal will take over. It's just an hour or two. She's just a baby, for heaven's sake._

He couldn't take the silence anymore. Clearing his throat, looking around to make sure there was no one in the hallway to hear him, he began to speak.

"So. Here we are, then." Siobhan, whose gaze had finally begun to wander from his face toward the light fixture in the ceiling, looked back at him again. He winced. Not a promising beginning to a conversation. He tried again.

"Must be tough being a baby, huh?" Siobhan smiled, burped at him. He smiled back in spite of himself. "You know you might as well enjoy having full license to burp whenever you want. This is the only time in your life people are gonna think it's cute." She gave a little laugh, and one arm reached out towards him, waved a little. "Ba...ba?" she said.

He raised an eyebrow, resisted the urge to back away a little more. "No way. Uh-uh. I'm not picking you up. _I,_ for one, know better than that."

A long few minutes passed in silence, broken only by the occasional sigh from one or the other of them, and Brennan noticed that her eyes often would swing from his up to the light fixture, then back again. More time passed. She shifted in her carrier. Shifted again.

Suddenly he noticed that the gleam in her eye was fading, her lower lip trembling slightly.

"Oh no. Please, don't!" The chin trembled more violently, the eyes squeezed closed. And Siobhan opened her mouth, took a deep breath, and began to cry.

Had Brennan had a mirror in front of him, he'd have been shocked and disgusted at the panic in his eyes. He moved closer to the carrier, crouched down. "No, no, don't cry," he pleaded, keeping his voice soft. Hesitating, he took her hand, held it. It was so tiny; looking down at it, Brennan thought how her hand in its smallness, smoothness, made his look huge, dark, and hairy.

Siobhan continued to cry: a thin, heartbreaking wail punctuated by tiny hiccups.

_Oh, no_. Brennan thought. _Oh, God, no._

_-----_

In the work area, Shalimar looked across her computer desk to where Jesse was working at another, identical one. "Anything yet?" she asked, stretching in her chair.

Jesse looked up and rubbed his eyes. "Nothing. The three couples Brennan picked up in his initial search we can rule out from their DNA. Not even close to Siobhan's. I ran an image search from Adam's record of their conversation, and I'm still searching, but so far it looks like this woman just appeared from out of the blue. Not a record of her anywhere. And I mean _anywhere_. You?"

Shalimar shook her head. "I've gone as deep as I know how - and as you know, that's pretty deep - and there's no trace of Nichole Page after the fall of Genomex. Federal records have her presumed dead." She ran a hand through her blonde hair and sighed. "How can two people disappear so damn thoroughly? _No one's _that good. I mean, at the level I searched to, even Sanctuary would have been laid bare."

Jesse dropped his hands from his eyes and held them halfway to his lap, forgotten, as an idea occurred to him. Shalimar thought she could see the wheels turning in his head.

"Wait a minute," he said finally. "What if that's the connection? They've both been hidden so far underground they should be in China or Australia, right? So deep it should be impossible. So how many people in the world could do that?"

Shalimar nodded, catching his thought. "The same person disappeared them both."

He mimed firing a gun at her. "Bingo. But the question is, who? Who has the resources? The motive? The knowledge? The access?"

"Eckhart did," Shalimar said.

Jesse thought for a moment, shook his head. "He never found Sanctuary, did he? Plus, he's been in a pod since before Page's disappearance - before Siobhan was born. I think we can rule him out."

She chewed absently at the end of a lock of hair. "What about a telecyber psionic, like Michelle Bigelow?"

Jesse's lips turned down slightly, and he nodded. "Could be. They'd have to be really, really good, though. They'd have to know exactly where to look, exactly what data to erase."

Shalimar stood up. "Let's go talk to Adam."

----

"Hand me that petrie dish, would you, Emma?" Adam asked absently. She complied, and stopped to watch him work for a few moments. His skill with the tools of his trade was fascinating. Delicately, he extracted a sample from the culture in the dish, transferred it to a slide, set it under the red beam of his laser microscope, peered into the viewer.

"You know," he said after a moment, "I'd really prefer it if you didn't watch me like that. Do you have those probabilities calculated for me yet?"

She turned back to her screen. "Not yet. But I'm getting closer. Computer's doing the calculations. Have you got anything?"

"There's something about Siobhan's DNA. Since she's an electrical elemental, I've been running comparisons with Brennan's. There's a definite similarity; I wouldn't be surprised to hear that they were related somehow. But more than that, there's something...something different."

Emma furrowed her brow, moved in to look into the viewer as he straightened and stepped back. "What do you mean? It looks normal enough to me - for a new mutant, anyway."

He shook his head. "No offense, but this goes a little deeper than your experience. The only explanation I can think of is that she's evidence of the next step of the mutation - the next evolution. But what the effect of the change will be I have no idea."

Emma looked up from the viewer, green eyes concerned as they met his brown ones. "Do you think this might be why they're searching for her?"

He shrugged slightly, turned off the microscope. "I think it's a strong possibility. But what does it mean? Why would they want it?"

Suddenly, from down the hall, they heard the unmistakable sound of a baby's cry. Emma started immediately, turned towards the door. Adam smiled, noting that she didn't even seem to be conscious of what she was doing – it was simply instinct.

"Wait," he said, catching her arm.

She turned back to him, obviously confused. "But she's crying."

"Don't worry about her right now. Brennan's with her."

"Exactly. He won't have a clue what to do. You've seen him with her. He doesn't even _like_ her."

Adam shook his head. "Oh, he likes her well enough. That's not the problem." He smiled fondly. "He's terrified of her. I'm surprised you didn't feel it."

"Terrified? Brennan?" Emma's face widened with disbelief. She allowed her face to blank as she lowered a mental wall to sense just the surface of what Brennan was feeling. She met panic.

Adam nodded. "He's never dealt with a baby before. Heck, most of his life was lived on the streets. He doesn't know how to handle it."

"All the more reason why I should go help."

He shook his head again. "No. Short of trying to tranquilize her with an electric shock, he can't hurt her, and crying a little won't have any ill effect on her. Let's let him learn."

The crying stirred something inside her, and she yearned to go and pick the baby up, fix whatever was wrong, but reason told her Adam was right. She turned back to the screen resolutely.

-----

_Okay, why do babies cry?_ Brennan tried to focus his thoughts as he crouched over the crying Siobhan. _Because they're hungry, sleepy, wet, frightened. So all you have to do is figure it out, and do something about it._

He reached gingerly down through the blankets to feel Siobhan's diaper. It was dry. He sighed with relief. "That's not it," he said aloud. The sound of his voice over the crying steadied him a little. He picked up the bottle of formula sitting nearby, shoved it experimentally into her mouth. She sucked, and for a moment his heart leaped, but almost immediately she pushed it away with her tongue and cried again, harder. "Okay, okay, no bottle!" he said, and set it aside. "You slept already, so you can't be tired." _Distract her. Distraction is the key_.

He tried toys. He tried shaking keys. Nothing he showed her, offered her, made any difference.

He stood up, checked the hallway to be sure it was clear, then closed the door and took his ring off for good measure, then crouched down in front of her. The first thing that came to his mind wasn't, he felt, exactly appropriate, but it was the best he could do. Lyrics came to him unbidden. Pitching his voice as high and soft as he could, he reached out and began gently rocking the carrier.

_Baby you're a girl make a big noise  
Crying all the time, gonna be a big girl someday  
You got milk on your face  
You big disgrace  
Waving that diaper all over the place_

_We will, we will rock you  
We will, we will rock you..._

He felt like an idiot.

And Siobhan was unmoved. Her eyes were open, looking at him as she cried, and he felt her gaze like an accusation of incompetence. _You don't know what to do. You've failed me, and I'm just a baby._

Suddenly inspiration struck. "You like lights, don't you?" he asked her. "Let's see what you make of this." He dimmed the lights in the room slightly, then held up his hand in front of her eyes and willed it to fill with electricity. Sparks shot from finger to finger, met in the air above his hand.

Immediately blue, dancing light filled his palm, crackling in the sudden silence. He looked from his hand back to Siobhan, and found that she was watching the light, eyes wide and rapt, her discomfort forgotten.

"Yeah, that did it, didn't it?" Brennan asked softly. "Bet your mommy never tried this." He brought up his other hand, allowed the current to flow in a web from hand to hand. "Pretty lights."

She squealed with delight, and her arms waved in the air in front of her. Brennan smiled. _Maybe I'm finally getting this,_ he thought to himself.

Then his smile fell and his jaw went slack in surprise and shock. Between the baby's palms shot a tiny tendril of current. It fizzled, went out, came back. Held steady. She laughed in delight.

Brennan allowed his current to die, and, shaking slightly, engaged his com ring. "Adam," he said, his voice unsteady.

"Brennan. I don't hear any crying. Get her calmed down okay?"

"Yeah, yeah, that's not the problem. I need you to come in here, Adam. There's something you have to see."

End chapter 4.


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: Mutant X and its associated characters, locales, etc. are the property of Tribune Entertainment et al; my thanks to them. No copyright infringement is intended. Non-canon characters are my own, but feel free to use them. :)

Author's Note: Sorry this has been so long in the coming. I've been writing this by hand on lunch breaks and bus rides and never got around to typing it up until now. Thanks so much for all the reviews! Please continue to let me know what you think and to send suggestions. This part is mostly backstory, but be patient; it furthers the plot….

Four Mutants and a Baby: Chapter 5

by Deichtine

Adam covered the distance from the lab to the nursery in record time, and the scene he found there was enough to make him gape. Brennan, looking seriously freaked out, was sitting on the floor, staring at Siobhan, who was delightedly generating tiny lighting bolts and tossing them in all directions, then squealing with laughter.

"Oh, my God," Adam breathed.

Brennan jumped up. "You're reading my mind," he said, and nervously ran his hand through his hair, which was standing on end in the charged aether of the room.

"I don't get it, Adam. You said she wouldn't show her abilities for years yet. Heck, I didn't notice anything until I was six, and didn't have any real control until I was eight."

"I don't understand it either. There's no way she should be able to do this yet." He thought for a while, gazing down at the baby and chewing absently at his thumbnail. "Ah…Brennan," he said finally, his voice betraying that he was going to have to ask something he didn't want to say.

"Yeah?"

"You didn't…shock her, did you?"

Brennan's hackles rose and he turned away. "Yeah, sure, that'll get her to stop crying. Run a few volts through her." When he looked back, his eyesshowed hurt."Adam, what do you think I am?"

Adam put his hands up in an apologetic gesture. "I'm sorry, I know you wouldn't do that. I shouldn't even have thought it. But I can't think of why she would have started now, after all the time she's been here."

"Well, I didn't _shock_ her, but I did hold a littleelectricity in front of ther." He demonstrated. "I was trying to distract her, that's all. It was totally under control." At Adam's considering look, Brennan continued, "What, do you think _that_ might have caused it?" he asked.

Adam finally shook his head. "If her body wasn't ready, she couldn't have started so much as a spark. No, Brennan, you may have given her an idea, but you're not responsible. Plus, from the level of control she's showing, I would guess she's done this before."

"But how?"

Adam bent down to pick up Siobhan, wincing as a tiny, low-voltage lightning bolt hit him on the chin. "Come on down to the lab. When you called, I think I was on to something that may help to explain this."

The baby was asleep again and Brennan had finally gone to bed. Adam was just cleaning up the lab for the night when the call came in. This time she was calling from an old-fashioned phone; there was no visual.

"Did you find her?" Siobhan's mother's voice over theline was low and husky from crying, trembling with a vain attempt to control her emotions.

"Yes, we did. She's safe with us. But now, you know youowe us some answers."

"I couldn't keep her safe. Mr. Kane, you have to understand." She sounded perilously close to breaking down again, and Adam moved quickly to keep her talking.

"What's your name?" he asked gently. Whenshe hesitated, he soothed,"Trust me. This line is secure. No one can hear you but me."

"It's Anne."

"I know you're running from someone, Anne. We can help you. Why don't you come to us?"

"I can't. They're too close. They'd find you, and then there'd be no one left to protect Siobhan."

"We can protect you both, Anne, and you can stay with your daughter."

Her voice shook harder, nearing the breaking point. "No. No one can protect me. If I'm separate from her, Siobhan has a chance."

"Who are you running from?"

There was a pause, and Adam could hear her take a deep breath. "I can't tell you."

"You have to give me something. Her father, where is he?"

"She doesn't have a father."

"Were you aware when you gave her to us that Siobhan is already showing evidence of her gifts?"

Her eyes widened. "What…what do you mean?"

"What's your mutancy, Anne?"

"I'm an elemental. Thermal."

Adam nodded. It made sense. Especially if the father were also an Elemental. "Siobhan is an electrical Elemental – and she's already throwing off sparks."

"But that's impossible. Isn't it?"

"It should be. Look, you owe us an explanation. Siobhan is a wonderful girl, but by leaving her with us you've involved us in whatever it is you're dealing with. We're prepared to do whatever we can to protect you both, but you've got to give us something to work with." There was an anxious silence.

"If you don't tell us who's after you," Adam continued, more gently, "We won't be prepared when they come for Siobhan. And you know they will."

He heard Anne take a deep breath; she had made her decision. "Siobhan doesn't have a father because she was engineered. In the process the DNA of several promising Elementals was combined."

"What was the goal?" Adam asked.

"Initially, it was just to see if it could be done – test the hypothesis. They expected her to become a kind of super-elemental, with two, maybe even three kinds of abilities."

"How did you get involved?"

"I was…well, forcibly recruited, you might say." Her voice now held bitterness and anger. "Last year, my husband and I were trying to get pregnant. We had tried all sorts of things, but we were nervous about letting our family doctor look at us too closely because–well, for obvious reasons."

"Your husband is also a mutant?"

"Yes, feral."

Adam couldn't supress a small smile. "Seems like a popular pairing," he murmered. "Please, continue."

"Finally, we made the worst decision of our lives. We went to Genomex."

Adam slowly released the breath he hadn't been aware he was holding. Of course. It always led back to Genomex.

"We didn't know what it had become. We lived quiet lives, never used our powers in public. We didn't even know about each other's mutancies until three years after we were married, when he got home early and saw me cooking a meatloaf without benefit of an oven." Her voice seemed to be calming now - Adam thought the memory was probably grounding her.

"And what happened when you went to Genomex?"

"We thought the reason we couldn't conceive had to lie in the changes to our DNA, our mutations, so we walked right in and asked to see a geneticist. They were quite excited – looking back, it must have been amazing to them, that two new mutants would just walk in together and say 'Study us.'"

Adam nodded, scratched his eyebrow. He could just see Eckhart's face. They might as well have tied on a bow.

"The first thing they did was implant us both with subdermal governors. They told us they were devices for regulating hormone production. And we went along, little lambs to the slaughter. And in the end they did look at our fertility problems, and we were right. Barring intervention, Mike and I would never have conceived. Genomex did intervene, oh yes, but Mike had nothing to do with it. He was of no use anymore, except as a hostage to ensure my cooperation. And in the end, even that didn't help him. They locked him in a stasis pod two months after they were sure the embryo had implanted. They had a new hostage: Siobhan.

"When she had grown enough they did an amniocentesis and ran a scan on her DNA, and suddenly everyone started getting excited. They wouldn't tell me anything, but they kept pointing at the screen, phoning up to Harrison's office. It was like they'd totally forgotten about me, there in the exam bed. I never did find out what they saw, but I kept hearing the phrase 'unexpected results'.

"I think it was at that point that it finally sunk in; when Siobhan was born, they would never let me keep her. They would want to raise her themselves to be loyal to Genomex. And so I started planning my escape.

"I decided to run as soon as Siobhan was born and I had recovered. But I didn't get the chance."

Adam, who had been listening raptly, found his voice. "Did they discover your plans?"

"No. A week before Siobhan was due, the Strand took over Genomex. I escaped in the confusion and hid out at a battered women's shelter for a few days, but I had to leave before Siobhan was born–they'd have insisted on registering the birth. She was born in a blind alley, with a couple of friendly prostitutes attending."

Adam listened with wide eyes, astonished at what this woman had been through. "That's incredible," he said quietly.

"I lived in and out of shelters for a little while," Anne continued. "I watched what was going on with mutants in the city–and I never saw a single GSAgent. So finally I got up my courage and went back to our house. She was waiting for me in the living room."

"Who?"

"Nichole Page."

Just then, the lab door opened, and a sleepy-looking Shalimar walked in, carrying a fussy Siobhan. "Adam," the fatigued feral complained, "I can't get her to sleep. It's your turn to try."

Siobhan whined pitifully, and from the phone console came a stifled sob. "Oh, God, Siobhan. My sweet one." At the sound of her mother's voice, Siobhan stopped fussing, but made interrogative noises, looking around for the familiar face.

"Anne, please," Adam said quietly, "come to us. You don't have to be separated from Siobhan any more."

Shalimar handed the baby to Adam,and she immediately began to cry and reach back toward Shalimar.

"Okay. I'll come. Just tell me where."

End of Chapter 5.

Comments, questions, criticism, and querulous remarks to ierneATexciteDOTcom


	6. Chapter 6

**Note and Disclaimer**: Mutant X and its associated characters, locales, etc. are the property of Tribune entertainment. Their use here is purely in the interests of fun and no copyright infringement is intended. Nichole Page, Anne, Siobhan, and all other non-canonical characters are my invention, but feel free to use them if you've a mind to.

**Author's note**: Thanks for all the encouraging reviews! I can't believe the response this has had, especially considering that when I started it, a) I thought it would be three chapters tops; and b) I thought it would be just a bit of fluff to take my mind off the other story. The plot has grown considerably from how I first envisioned it, and pretty much entirely because of your reviews! Keep sending in your thoughts and suggestions - I have very little idea where this one's going! I'm going to try to get a little more humour in in future chapters if I can.

**Spoiler**: Very, very slight spoiler for ep 202 - Power Play. Doesn't even deserve to be called a spoiler. More a reference.

**Four Mutants and a Baby: Chapter 6**

by Deichtine

Anne sat restlessly in a corner or the coffee shop. Every two moments she glanced nervously towards the door, checked her watch, and took a sip of coffee.

At precisely one o'clock, four young people entered the shop, talking animatedly amongst themselves, yet despite their seemingly relaxed attitude, there was an air of...wariness about them. The tallest, a good-looking man in a fashionably long black leather coat (which Anne privately thought looked rather silly) seemed to be taking stock of the whole room with every casual glance. The blonde girl, despite her easy smile as she chatted with the younger man, looked ready to pounce without warning.

They caught sight of her; Anne wasn't intended to see them noticing her, she knew, but she could tell. They recognized her. While three of them chose a table (conveniently located so that they could watch all the entrances), the fourth, a young redheaded woman, casually moved over to where Anne was sitting.

"A lot of weather we've been having," the young woman said, and Anne relaxed slightly. That was the signal phrase. These _were _Adam's people after all.

"Not as much as last year," Anne responded, and the young woman nodded, satisfied.

"My name's Emma. May I sit down?" Anne waved at the chair opposite her, and Emma sat down and folded her hands atop the table.

"Thank you for meeting us," the young woman continued, then looked stopped suddenly. She looked curiously at her, straight in the eye. Suddenly, she reached out and squeezed Anne's hand briefly, smiling encouragingly. Anna felt certain, suddenly, that she could trust these young people implicitly. "You don't have to be scared anymore. Adam is going to take care of everything," she said gently, then smiled brightly. "Are you ready to go?"

"Siobhan...is she okay?" Anne asked, and Emma didn't need any empathic gifts to hear the longing in her voice.

"She's fine. Adam is taking care of her. She was napping when we left."

A lump came to Anne's throat and she was quiet for a moment. Emma, understanding, simply waited. Finally, Anne took a deep breath and said, "Okay. Let's go see my baby." They rose and left the shop, joined nonchalantly by the rest of the team. The tall one led the way, and the other two brought up the rear. Once they were outside, Emma quickly made the introductions and they began to move as a group to the alley where the Double Helix was sitting cloaked.

As they reached the mouth of the seemingly empty alley, the group stopped, and the four team members exchanged a glance. Jesse, the blond man, produced from a case in his pocket what looked like a small transparent plastic circle.

"We call this an optical inhibitor," he said, showing it to her. "It's basically an electronic blindfold."

"Blindfold?" Alarm rose in Anna and she reflexively glanced back towards the coffee shop. "What for?"

"You must think we don't trust you," Emma said soothingly. "But that's not it at all. We want to protect you. It's a fact that, if you learned the location of our Sanctuary, and anyone else found out that you knew, you would be in danger. This way, when this is all over, and you and Siobhan are building your new life, you can make a clean break with us and you won't have to worry about our enemies linking you with us."

Anne nodded. She was frightened, but rationally she respected these people's right to guard their secrets. She had trusted them with Siobhan; she just had to trust them again. She allowed the young man to place the little disc on her right temple, and gasped as her vision darkened.

But as Emma gently took her arm to guide her to the Helix, a shot rang out, its sharp report echoing off the walls of the alleyway.

"Get down!" she heard Brennan shout, and a pair of hands grasped her shoulders and pulled her to the ground. She cried out in fear and pain as she fell hard to the ground.

"Don't move!" Jesse said in a low voice next to her ear, and then his weight and presence were gone.

Too terrified to move even an inch, she listened to the battle. The sharp sound of gunshots snapped like firecrackers all around, and she heard Brennan cry out in pain, and Emma shout his name in fear as she realized he was hit. Then the distinctive thudding blows of hand to hand combat began to replace gunshots, and she heard groaning, and bodies striking the earth.

Suddenly she felt the hair lifting at the back of her neck, and a strange buzzing crackle filled the air, almost like a lightning strike. Someone cried out.

"Dammit, there's too many of them!" Shalimar cried in frustration.

Emma groaned in pain; Anne could hear her trying to get her breath.

"We've got to get out of here! Brennan's shot, and I think I've got a broken rib," Jesse called,his voice tight, and suddenly strong hands were grasping Anne's arms, pulling her to her feet.

"Jesse?" she said in confusion. He had sounded too far away to reach her that fast. Maybe that was his gift?

"No! Anne!" Brennan shouted, and somewhere away to the left she heard again that strange electrical noise, and then all movement ceased.

Suddenly, horribly, Anne realized that the hands that gripped her arms so tightly belonged to the wrong side, and she began to struggle wildly. Then she heard a sound which made her go perfectly still: the click of a gun being readied to shoot - directly beside her left ear.

"Don't do it, Mulwray," a deep voice warned, right behind her - the man who was holding her. "Any of you moves, she dies."

"Who are you people?" Shalimar demanded angrily.

"None of your business. Tell Adam he has three days to surrender the kid to us, or Mummy here bites the dust. Same place, same time."

"Don't do it!" Anne cried out. "Don't let Adam give them my baby!" She felt herself pulled roughly away, her hands cuffed behind her, and then she was shoved into the back of a car, which began to move the moment the door shut.

For a little while there was no sound other than the car's motor and the breathing of her captors. Then a voice asked, "What's up with her eyes?" They spoke about her, as though she were incapable of answering for herself, and she didn't feel any compulsion to answer them.

"Look at her temple there. I bet that's what's causing it." There was a pause, and Anne thought she felt a slight movement in the air before her face, as if he were waving his hand in front of her. "She can't see a thing."

"Good. Leave it there. Man, it's like they handed her to us. The great Mutant X." The voice was derisive, self-satisfied in victory.

"Don't celebrate just yet. That was closer than it should have been. Did you see what Mulwray did to Steve? He must have flown thirty feet."

As they bantered on, Anne's spirits sank even lower, and she felt tears accumulating behind the optical forcefields. _Trust me, he says_, she thought bitterly. _This line is secure. No one can hear us. I only hope he's better at keeping Siobhan safe than his telephone line._

Siobhan was inconsolable. Adam couldn't understand it. Shalimar had called in to say that they had met Anne and were coming in, and only a few minutes later Siobhan had begun to cry, a long, keening wail of sorrow, and nothing Adam tried could calm her; she just cried and cried. So Adam held her on his shoulder and walked up and down the length of Sanctuary, murmuring softly.

Suddenly the com system came to life. "Adam!" Shalimar's voice was tight with worry and strain.

"Shalimar! What's wrong?" Adam set Siobhan down in her crib and stepped away, so that he could hear Shalimar better.

"It was a disaster, Adam. An ambush. They knew we were coming. Brennan and Jesse are hurt, and they got Anne."

As if she understood, Siobhan began to cry even louder.

Adam pressed his fingers to his temples and closed his eyes as guilt washed through him. Disaster indeed. "How badly are they hurt?"

"Brennan's been shot in the leg, and he's bleeding a lot. Jesse thinks he's got a broken rib or two."

"Get back here as soon as you can, and we'll figure out what to do next when you get here."

"Okay." He closed the channel and picked up Siobhan again, stroked her head softly, but his eyes burned with anger.

"Poor Anne. She didn't have a chance," Emma said. She lowered her cheek to gently nuzzle Siobhan's; the baby had finally cried herself to sleep in her arms shortly after the team had returned.

Shalimar was standing outside the lab, resting her forehead on the glass wall as she gazed in at her two sleeping teammates. "I don't understand it," she said, without turning around. "There is no way they could have known about that meeting. Or where exactly we would bring her. The Helix was cloaked, and there was no one in the alley when we landed, I'm sure of it."

"I thought you and Jesse had fixed the holes in the communication system after Colonel Gaumont was able to interfere with our comlinks," Emma said, but Adam, who was sitting tiredly on the table/bench/computer terminal which protruded from the wall nearby, just rubbed his eyes and shrugged.

"I thought we had too. I think, given the skills these people have shown both in hiding themselves and in breaking through our shielding, we can't afford to take any more chances. From now on, we'll maintain complete radio silence except in absolute emergencies, and avoid using the Helix as much as possible." He shook his head; his shoulders sagged with fatigue. "I don't know why I should be surprised," he said with a mirthless laugh. "You said it yourself, Shalimar. At the depth these people, whoever they are, have hidden themselves, all of Sanctuary could be laid bare. And we're going to have to proceed under the assumption that it has been. We can't take anything for granted."

Within the lab, Brennan began to move restlessly in his sleep, and Shalimar immediately went in, to be there if he woke up. Adam and Emma exchanged a small smile, but then Jesse groaned, his hand reaching to his chest even before his eyes opened, and Emma immediately passed the baby to Adam and went in to stand at his bedside. Adam took Siobhan in his arms, adjusted her blanket, and sighed heavily. Three days - two and a half now, really. What was he going to do?

End chapter 6.

As always, comments, questions, suggestions, and constructive criticism are always welcome at


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer**: Mutant X and its associated characters, settings, etc. are the copyrighted property of Tribune Entertainment. Their use in the present work is purely not for profit and no infringement of anyone's legal rights is intended.

**Author's Note**: Again, thanks for all the encouragement! You guys are the best. I hope to have this wrapped up in a couple of chapters. The scene between Nichole Page and Anne is very cliched, but I don't have the energy to rewrite it, and it had to happen. So just grin and bear it, people. :)

**Spoiler alert**: ep. 216, "Once Around", and Season 2 power capabilities

**Four Mutants and a Baby: Chapter 7**

by Deichtine

When Brennan awoke, he was alone in the lab. His left foot was swathed in an inordinate amount of bandages, making it twice the size of his right. Gingerly, he reached down to prod the bandaged foot, and judging by what he felt, he was sure that the wound did not need to be so heavily bandaged. Adam had obviously decided that he didn't want Brennan picking and poking at the healing area. _He's only known me two years, and he already knows me way, way too well,_ Brennan thought with a wry smile.

He swung himself around and hopped lightly down from the exam bed onto his good foot, hanging on to the edge of the bed for support. A wheelchair sat waiting nearby, within easy reach, but he ignored it. He was not an invalid. He would stay vertical and mobile - prove to Adam that he _could_ stay vertical and mobile, or he knew that when the time came to go after Anne, he would be left behind.

Forcing himself to move naturally, he moved out of the lab and down the concourse, using short, controlled blasts of what Shalimar liked to call his "rocket boy power" as a crutch for his sore foot. He had been practising using that power in fight situations so much that it was now almost second nature.

The rest of the team was gathered around the breakfast table, chatting lightly, some of them still in their pyjamas. Brennan amicably shoved Jesse aside to make room for himself at the table, folded his legs and sat down, returning their greetings and assuring them that he felt fine. Jesse grabbed at his bruised ribs in mock agony and elbowed Brennan in the side.

Adam, however, was looking sternly at him. "You know you're not supposed to be walking yet," he said.

"Yeah, well, I figure there's no point letting a little scratch keep me down. Not when we've got nut jobs out there on the loose. Em, you want to pass the pancakes?"

"Brennan, I'm serious. You had some serious damage in that foot of yours, and if you want to be able to keep on fighting, you've got to take care of it."

"I know. I will. Don't worry, Adam, I know my limits. So where's everyone's favourite diaper factory?"

Siobhan and Emma exchanged a look; Jesse snickered. "Siobhan's taking a nap. She didn't sleep well last night," Emma said. "I got definite flashes of worry from her - I think she senses that something's wrong with her mother."

"What, is she psionic, now, too?" Jesse asked.

Adam shook his head. "I don't think so, but she could very well be picking up on our subconscious cues, our emotions." Emma shook her head, but didn't press the issue further. "But now that we're all here - however we got here" - at this point he threw another dark look at Brennan - "we need to decide how we're going to get Anne back. I want to hear suggestions, people."

There was a long period of silence. The team members glanced uneasily at each other.

"Well...," Emma began uncertainly, "is there any way we could use the holograms again? The way we did when Jesse impersonated Vic Collaruso?"

Adam thought for a moment, then shook his head. "I don't see how we could. The only one who needs impersonating is Siobhan, and frankly you're all a little too big." There were smiles around the table. "No, I don't see how it could come into play."

There was another long silence. "What about a straight confrontation?" Brennan asked. "Show up, attack, take her back by force."

"Given the result of the last encounter you had with them, I'm not going to send you up against them in a straight assault in your condition. Even if none of you were injured, I wouldn't. That's the one sure way we have of making sure Anne gets killed. There's no guarantee she'll even be at the meet - the deal was just that if we hand over Siobhan, she wouldn't be killed. No, no, the key is to outsmart them somehow."

"Well, then we need to know more about them," Jesse said. "But Shal and I have searched for hours and come up empty."

"Counterthreat," Brennan said. "Siobhan's the one they really want. Tell them that if they kill Anne, we kill Siobhan." Three aghast faces stared at him, and he threw up his hands defensively. "I don't mean really do it. Just threaten it. Yikes."

"It wouldn't work anyway. As long as they have Anne, they can recreate their experiments. They just don't want to wait that long. They have the higher card, and they know it," Jesse said.

"You know...," Adam said slowly, "that might not be precisely right. Brennan may be on to something here. It takes two to tango, after all. Or, in Siobhan's case, it took several."

"What are you talking about?" Shalimar asked, spearing a strawberry savagely with her fork.

"Siobhan's fathers," Emma said, catching on.

Adam pointed at her and smiled. "Bingo. Anne told me that when Siobhan was engineered they used the DNA of 'several promising elementals' to provide the male half of the conception equation. That DNA probably belonged to elementals in Genomex's possession, either people they had kept in pods, or agents, or frozen samples. My guess is that this group no longer has access to such a range of new mutant DNA, certainly not the same fathers. They may very well not be able to reproduce the experiment."

"I don't know how that changes things," Shalimar said. "We still can't threaten Siobhan."

"You're right there, Shalimar," Adam responded. "They would never believe the bluff. Anyone who knows anything at all about Mutant X knows what we stand for; they know we would never hurt a baby. I think, though, that we need to find something they want even more than they want Anne or Siobhan, and right now our only leads are Nichole Page and the fathers who contributed their DNA to Siobhan. Time for some paternity tests."

-----

"Anne. So good to see you again." The tall redhead stood over the seated woman and watched with mild interest as the optical inhibitor was removed and Anne's eyes cleared.

Anne looked around, trying to find some indication of where they were. She had been drugged out shortly after the car ride began, and given her loss of vision, had entirely lost her sense of direction. They were alone in a small, glass-walled room, but through the walls Anne could see that this cell was within a much larger room, high-ceilinged like a school gym. The glass room was raised slightly, and Anne could look down and see professionally-clad people moving busily to and fro between computer stations, going about their business with practised efficiency. The transparent walls blocked the steady gentle noise one would expect from such an animated work floor, and Anne, watching them, found their busy silence almost eerie. There was nothing to identify where they were or what company they were working for, but Anne had never seen anything like it at Genomex.

"Welcome to my world," Page said, watching Anne's reaction to her surroundings.

"What is this place?" Anne asked.

"This, my dear friend, is a research facility older even than Genomex. Like our dear old alma mater, its focus is genetic manipulation, but with two very important differences: This place never had any affiliation with the American government, and we never had any bleeding hearts like Paul Breedlove holding us back."

"What will it take to get you to leave me and Siobhan alone? Money? I don't have much, but I'll try, I'll find it, I swear."

Page cut her off with a gesture. "Look, this isn't just some petty kidnapping for ransom here. It's not money we're after. We'll have enough of that and to spare once we sell the results. Right now we just want our property back."

Anne's eyes flashed, her intimidation turning to hot anger in an instant. "Siobhan is not your property, and neither am I. Adam and his friends will never give her to you, and you'll never find her there."

Nichole threw back her head and laughed, long crystalline peals of laughter that reverberated with the transparent walls. When her laughter subsided and she looked down once more and Anne's eyes met hers, Anne could see madness there, and victory. "Oh, Anne. You were smart to go to them, really. If anyone could have protected you, it'd have been Mutant X. But no one can. You see, this has been part of the plan since the beginning. Capturing you was only a pretext. You see, in the fight in the alley we planted a homing device on the empath girl, one that would disintegrate before it was detected. And when they come for the meet in a couple of days, they'll want to show up ready to fight. They won't leave much of a guard at home. So you see, not only are we going to find Adam's little lair, but we are going to reclaim Siobhan." She motioned to the guard outside to open the door to let her pass, then paused in the doorway to look back condescendingly. "And if you're very good," she said, in that horrible voice that great-aunts are accustomed to use with kids well into their teens, "we might just let you see her now and again."

Anne struggled uselessly against her bonds, tried to send a wave of searing heat at the horrible woman, but she was inexperienced and clumsy with her powers, and the pain of the governor in her neck made her writhe, so that all she accomplished was to burn her hands on the arms of the chair.

"Damn you," she whispered to the empty room. "Damn you!" she shouted, but it was unclear even to her whether she meant the words for Page, Adam, or herself.

-----

By the next evening, they were no further ahead in their search for more information, and as Adam had been holed up in the lab almost constantly since thie rbreakfast conference, running endless simulations with the DNA of known elementals, the four young mutants were gathered in the lounge. They were sagging back into the armchairs, allowing their exhaustion to take over for awhile, while Siobhan sat and played on a blanket in front of them.

"So how come you're so jumpy around Siobhan, anyway, Brennan?" Jesse asked finally, breaking the silence.

Brennan didn't look up from the teddy bear he was idly posing in martial arts positions. "I'm not jumpy," he protested mildly. "I'm just not really good with kids."

Shalimar gave him a knowing, disbelieving look which Emma mirrored. "Oh come on," the blonde said. "Every time you get close to her you're like a cat on a sinking ship."

"A what?"

"Cats hate the water." They continued to stare at her. "Oh, never mind. Whatever."

"Look, I like Siobhan as much as the rest of you and I'll do my best for her, but I admit, I'm not comfortable having her here. This is Mutant X, not the babysitter's club." He added under his breath, "The babysitter's club would be better qualified."

"You know what I think?" Emma said, sitting up suddenly.

"What?" Brennan asked suspiciously.

"I think you haven't held her once since she came," Emma said, standing up. She scooped up the baby and, before Brennan had a chance to react, she plopped her down in his lap.

"What the?" Brennan said, grabbing the child to make sure she didn't fall. "Emma, no. I don't do babies."

Emma sat down again in her own chair with an arch expression. "Well, then, isn't it time you learned?"

"I'm not going to dignify that with a response," Brennan growled, doing his best to ignore the grins of his friends. Gingerly he took hold of Siobhan around her torso - his fingers were so long that they touched across her back - and turned her around so that she was facing him.

Immediately she grinned, let loose a delighted squeal of laughter, and grabbed Brennan's nose hard between her fingers.

"Ow!" he said, more from startlement than actual pain, and the others erupted into laughter. He lifted her up from his lap, intending to pass her off to Jesse, but as he lifted her, she put her legs down to stand upright on his knees, and Brennan had to stop in surprise. "Hey, look, she's standing," he said. "I mean, I'm keeping her balance, but she's supporting her own weight." The others exchanged a look of pure amusement.

"Yeah, most babies can do that surprisingly early," Shalimar said.

"But she's so strong," Brennan said, still surprised.

Just then, there came a loud, low, bubbling noise, and a familiar smell filled the air. "Gagh!" Brennan said with disgust, lifting her up and away from him. "I think she just dropped a load."

Jesse leaned over, stretched the elastic of Siobhan's diaper and looked inside. "Yup," he said, sitting back again. "She sure did. Congratulations. You get to change your first diaper."

Brennan shook his head firmly, his jaw set. "No way. Not on your life. Diapers are women's work."

Emma and Shalimar gaped at him, and Jesse just shrugged and sat back to watch them tear his tall friend apart. "What is this, the caveman days?" Emma asked.

"Me Brennan. Me big man, strong hunter. Me hunt wild boar, have meat many days," Shalimar mocked in a deep, gravelly voice.

"Oh, come off it," Brennan said, letting go Siobhan with one hand long enough to throw the teddy bear at Shalimar's head. "I just meant, Siobhan's a girl. A girl should change her. I have no business looking at her - down there."

"Why, I do believe he's blushing," Emma said, but Shalimar just pushed herself up from her chair.

"Come on," Shalimar said. "I'll show you what to do. It's easy, and she'll never remember that you saw her naked."

Still holding the baby straight out in front of him, standing tall despite his wounded pride, Brennan followed Shalimar to the nursery, but a part of him couldn't shake the suspicion that somehow they had all planned this between them. Siobhan smiled, waved her hand, and sent a tiny lightning bolt to hit him in the chest.

End chapter 7

As always, comments, questions, and criticism are most welcome at ierneATexciteDOTcom.


	8. Chapter 8

**Disclaimer:** Mutant X and its associated characters, locales, etc. are the property of Tribune Entertainment et al; no copyright or other legal infringement is intended. This work is done purely for fun with no profits to anyone other than that sunny feeling you get with a good review. Other characters such as Nichole Page, Anne, and Siobhan, are my own, but other authors may feel free to use them if they should wish. 

**Author's Note**: I know I'm sort of taking a bit of a different direction than I was at the end of the last chapter, but it's been over half a year since I wrote anything on this, and I have to get them out of the mess I've put them in somehow!

**Four Mutants and a Baby** - **Chapter 8**

by Deichtine

"You know, for such a little person, you sure do a lot of business," Brennan remarked, gingerly picking up the loaded diaper and dropping it in the pail. Siobhan cooed and grabbed her toes, then pushed a hand into her mouth and began to suck noisily. "How in the world did you manage to get it up your back?"

"Not a bad job, for your first time," Shalimar said, patting Brennan on the back. "Wasn't so bad, was it?" Her voice was cloyingly condescending.

Brennan gave her an annoyed look. "Just don't expect me to make a habit of it. And I'm not the baby here, okay?"

"Really? I'd never have known. Though, come to think of it, you are rather tall for a five-month old. And hairy."

"Ha ha. Very funny."

They had not yet replaced Siobhan's diaper, and she looked steadily up at him, utterly without shame or modesty, and Brennan, looking down at her, felt a new emotion stirring within him as he looked at her, lying there in her nakedness. There was no element of sexuality there; just a sudden realization that Siobhan was more than just a baby; she was a little...a little woman. Someday she would be a beautiful green-eyed charmer andgrown men would look at her with desire...A sudden surge of fierce protectiveness welled up in Brennan, an empathy for her innocence and the life that lay ahead of her, full of happiness and pain. She would learn and she would love; she would struggle to control the strange abilities of her genetic legacy. He felt a kinship between them. In that moment, Brennan's heart opened to a moment of pure, unselfish love.

"Ah, Brennan?"

The spell was broken. Shalimar was looking at him expectantly, holding out the new diaper with a bemused expression. "Some of us do want to get to bed sometime tonight."

-----

The next evening, the bleary-eyed team met once again for a strategy meeting, and there were no smiling faces among them. Siobhan had been fussy all night and all day, and Emma had been the only one who had been able to calm her, projecting feelings of safety and comfort to the tiny Elemental.

Adam ran a hand through his disorderly mop of brown hair and sighed heavily. "Well, if ever there was a road that led nowhere, it's the road I've been following today. Whoever designed Siobhan's DNA was a master of their craft – I'll never be able to sort out who the various Elementals were whose genetic material was used to create her. Certainly not before tomorrow."

Jesse nodded in agreement. "Shalimar and I have been searching the databases almost nonstop, and we've come up with nothing. Fort Knox is an open-air market compared to these guys. There are no records of the project at Genomex, none on anything we could think of to search for. Everything stops the day Anne and Mike walked into Genomex."

Brennan scratched absently at his healing foot as he shifted positions in his chair. "So what do we do now? We can't wait to let them attack us; we can't give Siobhan to them; we can't trick them; we can't use their research against them; we can't attack them at the meet; we can't go to their lair and sneak in. What can we do?"

Adam sighed. "Actually, going after their lair while they're on their way to meet us would probably be the best route, if it were feasible. I would bet most of Sanctuary that they won't bring Anne to the meet. But we'll never be able to find it."

Emma, bags under her eyes from staying up most of the night, was chewing on a strand of her hair, something she would never do if she were not so exhausted. "Ummm...actually, that might not be totally true."

Four heads turned to her. Even Siobhan, awake but quiet on Shalimar's lap, turned questioning eyes towards her. "The reason Siobhan's been so unhappy these past few days is that she's picking up on her mother's fear."

"How is that possible? They're both Elementals," Brennan asked.

"I don't know how. All I know is that Anne and Siobhan have a bond. It's not as strong as the one Joshua Valentine shared with his mother, but it's definitely there."

"So what are you saying, Emma?" Adam asked. "Do you think you can use this link to find Anne, the way you did with Joshua?"

She rubbed her eyes, then let her shoulders sag again. "I don't know. Joshua's mother was a Psionic who had been linked to her son for over ten years. Siobhan's only a baby, and she's not a Psionic. I don't know if I'll be able to use their link."

"But you want to try," Jesse said. Emma nodded.

"Okay, Emma, I think you've given us a good chance here. But I don't want you trying anything like this until tomorrow. You need rest," Adam said. He looked at each team member in turn. "You all need rest. Go sleep. Whatever happens day after tomorrow, we need to be ready for it."

-----

The next morning, after breakfast, Emma slipped quietly into the room where Siobhan slept fitfully, closed the door, and gathered her in her arms, trying to wake her as gently as possible. When the child's eyes opened, Emma gave her a bottle, burped her, then sat her on her lap, facing her, and took both of her little hands in her own.

"It's okay, Siobhan," she said quietly. "I'm going to see if I can find your mama." Focusing, Emma allowed her eyes to drift shut, and when she reopened them, they were blind and unseeing, as the mind behind them searched elsewhere.

The first thing Emma sensed was softness.

_She was surrounded by softness. She was wrapped in a blanket, and she was warm and content. Someone was holding her, and she felt safe._

_But something was wrong. The Someone who was holding her was Good, but she wasn't the One, the Loved One. Something was wrong, the Loved One was frightened, and she couldn't see her. Why didn't she answer? The self wanted the Loved One. The self kept looking at the Other Ones, waiting for the Loved One to come back, but she never did. She was far away..._

Emma pounced on the half-formed thought, the feeling of distance Siobhan associated with her mother, and grasped the slippery thought, trying to follow it to its origin, hoping to find Siobhan's psychic link with her mother, but it slipped away; Siobhan was still too young to pay enough attention to it to hold it steady. Emma found the attempt to immerse herself in the baby's mind a novel experience. Siobhan still recognized only a few words, and didn't yet use them internally in her thought, and her preverbal thought processes consisted primarily of emotions, sensations, and above all, a ravenous curiosity about everything around her – Emma marveled at how quickly Siobhan was absorbing information and making sense of the world. Were all babies' minds like this?

_The Self notices the New One, recognizes her as one of the Other Ones, but now inside, talking to her. Joy! The New One can hear the Self! Only the Loved One can her the Self..._

_Where is the Loved One? Asks the New One. Sadness! The Loved One is gone!_

_Help me to find the Loved One. Look for her, talk to her._

_The Self is searching for the Loved One; finds her! Oh, the Loved One is sad again. She is always sad, and afraid, except when she is alone at night with the Self. The Self knows she makes the Loved One happy. She wants to make her happy now. The Loved One wants the Self too – The Self is here! Come, Loved One, the Self will make you happy, and The Loved One will return to the Self!_

Emma felt a surge of triumph as at last she was able to help the child direct her infantile yearnings to a real psionic connection with her mother. It was only a split second, but it was enough. Emma would be able to find her again on her own now. She sent happy encouraging thoughts to Siobhan and put her back in the crib, soothing her back into a light sleep with gentle empathic touches.

Emma slipped back to her own room and slipped into a light meditative trance, focusing on the mental 'path' Siobhan had shown her, following it to Siobhan, trying to get some sense of location. She was far away, outside the city. She was frustrated, frightened, worried about her child, but unhurt. Emma tried to steer away from the emotive aspect, tried to get a feel for distance and direction, though she was so far away, it was difficult to get anything precise.

Finally she opened her eyes, rubbed her temples, and went to find Adam. It wasn't perfect, but it would have to do.

-----

"No."

"Brennan—"

"No. I'm not staying behind. You need me, Adam."

Adam's eyes flashed as his voice grew harder. "I need you here."

Brennan crossed his arms across his chest belligerently. "To do what? Babysit? Mind the store?"

"If you must put it like that, yes. Someone has to stay behind, Brennan, and right now, I don't see anyone else with an injury bad enough to keep them from fighting."

"I can still fight, Adam. It's barely a scratch. And what about Jesse's ribs?"

"Jesse's ribs were just bruised. They'll hurt for awhile, but having to fight won't permanently injure him. As it might you – please, Brennan, let me be the Doctor here. That wound in your foot is a full-fledged bullet wound. If you were in the army, you'd be sent home for that wound. I'm not going to let you risk further injury. You're not going on this mission, if I have to sedate you. Is that clear?"

Brennan's voice was cold. "Crystal." And he turned his back and stalked away from his mentor, trying very hard not to limp.

End of Chapter 8. Next chapter will have more action, hope to finish this in Chapter 10.


End file.
